Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it is too soon to speculate or confirm any information relating to a reported new Covid-19 case in Wellington.
Ardern is in Christchurch today; visiting and meeting with a number of community and business leaders in the city.
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Addressing media, Ardern said more information would be given by the Ministry of Health at 1pm.
It comes amid reports of a suspected case in Wellington of a double vaccinated construction case.
The New Zealand Herald understands a person tested positive for the virus in the Capital yesterday.
Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said the council hasn't had any formal confirmation of a positive case.
But he said the council was aware of reports of a positive case involving a construction worker.
When contacted just before midday, Willis Bond Managing Director Mark McGuinness said he wasn't aware of a positive case on any of his company's construction sites.
Health officials are refusing to confirm whether Covid-19 has been detected in the Capital, saying an update on case numbers and locations will be released at 1pm.
Ardern gave a media stand-up about noon alongside Wigram MP Dr Megan Woods, also the minister for Research, Science and Innovation.
More would be known on November 29 - when the new framework would come into play.
She urged Aucklanders to prepare for the traffic light system, which is due to happen "very soon".
She said Cabinet has not made any decisions on any further movement of the current alert levels.
On Monday, the Government will review whether or not there will be a move out of the current alert level 3.2; which has allowed retail stores and some public facilities in Auckland to open their doors once again.
But at least one expert says we would be better off waiting to see how opening retail back up in Auckland had impacted the number of community cases being identified in our largest city.
Covid-19 modeller Professor Shaun Hendy says we have not yet seen the impact of reducing restrictions in Auckland 10 days ago - but we may start to see it soon.
"Those [new cases] will just be starting to filter through now. So we might start to see that effect over the next week," he told TVNZ's Breakfast.
"There is always a lag when you're looking at the data," he said.
There were 167 community cases reported yesterday, as well as the deaths of two people who had contracted Covid. The majority of cases remain in Auckland.
Despite high community cases, R number going down
Hendy said despite the high number of cases, things were looking "pretty good" and that the R number of Covid-19 had been dropping over the last few weeks and is now closer to 1.
The R number is the average number of people one infected person will pass the virus on to.
When we get below 1, we will start to see case numbers drop over time and it will be a sign that our vaccination rates have gone ahead of the virus.
However, the opening of retail stores in Auckland just over a week ago may have just "kicked things up" more again, Hendy said.
Opening up hospitality businesses in Auckland still too risky
Opening up hospitality was a much riskier step than opening up retail, he said, due to the nature of hospitality businesses - which will see people coming into close contact with each other and for a longer period of time than being in a shop, for example.
"I would certainly think that was a riskier step - particularly before we go into the traffic light system."
Hendy said we should be cautious about moving Auckland into alert level 3, phase 3, next week and that if the Government remains relaxed, we could see another significant outbreak.
If we still have high community cases before moving into the traffic light system, case numbers could still increase in pockets of the community.
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said in his morning interviews today that officials were still considering public health advice ahead of any decision to move Auckland into alert level 3.3 as well as a transition to the traffic light system.
